New Delhi: Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday questioned the Congress Party’s silence over reports claiming that former home minister P. Chidambaram had signed the first affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, and accused the grand old party of hatching a conspiracy against the people of India with a political agenda.

“Latest revelation on Ishrat Jahan has actually nailed Chidambaram and the Congress because of the dubious way with which they wanted to implicate Narendra Modi. They have done great disservice to the country,” Javadekar told ANI.

“It is a conspiracy against the people of India. This needs to be taken to its logical conclusion. And I am wondering why Chidambaram and Rahul Gandhi are silent. This was a conspiracy with a political agenda,” he added.

Media reports revealed that Chidambaram had in fact signed the first affidavit, which declared Ishrat and three others as terrorists, but gave all four a clean chit a month later as serious amendments were made in the second affidavit also signed by him.

The first affidavit in the encounter case stated that Ishrat was a LeT operative, who was part of a plot to assassinate the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Chidambaram had initially claimed that the first affidavit declaring Ishrat and three others as terrorists was filed in the court without his approval, adding that he had made some editorial changes to avoid misinterpretation when the matter was brought to his notice.

Chidambaram, however, completely altered his stance in the second affidavit, saying that intelligence inputs on Ishrat and the three others did not constitute conclusive proof and favoured a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the encounter. (ANI)